Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was seeking an apology from China after a diplomat in Beijing tweeted an image purporting to show an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. The tweet, posted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, was “repugnant,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday. The Australian premier ...

Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were expected to receive on Monday the same daily intelligence briefing that President Donald Trump gets, belatedly beginning the transition between leaders of some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. The President’s Daily Briefing has been offered to every president-elect since Richard Nixon in 1968, often the morning after Election Day. ...

Bloomberg The leader of Ethiopia’s dissident Tigray state vowed to fight on after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said federal forces regained full control of the region. Ethiopia’s army captured the Tigray capital of Mekelle, after almost a month of fighting that’s left hundreds of people dead and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes. The authorities are now ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s two biggest cities will be governed by centrist mayors who defeated President Jair Bolsonaro’s candidates in nationwide municipal elections, consolidating the return of more moderate political actors following a conservative wave that swept the country two years ago. Brazilians went to the polls to choose mayors for Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and 55 of the country’s 5,500 ...

Bloomberg The Polish government is getting increasingly upset with European Union efforts to add conditions to budget funding, but the issue isn’t enough for them to consider quitting the bloc, a deputy minister said. While Hungary and Poland have long flouted democratic values that other European countries hold dear, officials in Brussels have struggled to discipline them as each can ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson is battling to convince his own Conservative Party colleagues to back plans to keep most of England under strict pandemic controls when the national lockdown ends this week. Ministers on Monday were expected to publish analysis of the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to suppress the disease, before a scheduled ...

Bloomberg The splintering of the global tech supply chain that began during President Donald Trump’s watch looks set to persist under his successor. Apple Inc, the largest of the many tech giants that rely on Chinese factories to make their gadgets, will move some production of its iPads and MacBooks to Vietnam. Key assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is considering offloading its struggling retail network in the US, a market the British bank has called one of its biggest strategic challenges. The bank’s management is looking at a complete withdrawal from its retail operations in the country, although a full exit from other businesses in the US is unlikely, according to a person familiar ...

Bloomberg The UK will ban the installation of 5G equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co by the end of next September. The restriction is part of an “initial” 250 million-pound ($333 million) package of measures brought in to diversify Britain’s wireless supply chain announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The stricter rules may also help fend ...

Bloomberg Italy’s government has approved a fourth stimulus package to support businesses hit by the latest restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The package is worth 8 billion euros ($9.6 billion), according to a statement published on Monday. It delays tax deadlines for companies and expands cash handouts for workers in tourism and the arts, which have been ...